


like a disease

by creepbat



Category: Breaking Bad
Genre: Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-24
Updated: 2015-01-24
Packaged: 2018-03-08 22:50:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3226412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creepbat/pseuds/creepbat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>"It's starting to look like walkers aren't the only monsters we have to worry about here."</i>
</p><p>Zombie AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	like a disease

**Author's Note:**

  * For [heyjupiter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/heyjupiter/gifts).



> Walking Dead crossover/AU.  
> If you haven't seen twd before, people turn into zombies after they die, even if they aren't bitten.

They stop at a gas station outside of some podunk town on the New Mexico-Arizona border for a quick supply run. Mr. White says it'll be a good opportunity for them to stretch their legs, like they're a family on a road trip. The uncooked ravioli they shared out of a can for lunch sloshes around in his stomach. They're heading west, the four of them cooped up in their stifling RV. Todd says he has an uncle out that way in Flagstaff who has connections, can give them a place to stay. Jesse was confused at first, how easily Mr. White accepted the plan, when all he talks about is looking for his wife and kids. Chances are he's convinced himself that they'll find them along the way. Jesse understands. Sometimes lying to yourself it the only way to survive. 

It doesn't take long for Jesse to spot a walker out of the corner of his eye. He turns to face it slowly, inexplicably waiting for it to be someone he knows- Badger, Skinny Pete, his little brother. But it's a woman he's never seen before, shambling toward him, drool running down her chin. She's missing a shoe. Her foot should be burning on the asphalt, but she gives no indication of feeling any pain. Jesse drives his knife into her temple. He doesn't even flinch anymore.

For some reason killing her reminds him of Saul, even though Jesse wasn't the one to do it- the lawyer still running his mouth the night before he turned, staunching his bleeding shoulder with a handkerchief, like he could debate his way out of having gotten bit; _Come'on it's not even deep, l'm fine, it's not even deep..._

He thinks about Jane too. It has to show because Mike comes up beside him and asks if he's doing okay.

"Oh yeah, I'm awesome," he says, forcing a grin and giving the area a quick once-over before looking back at Mike. "Why didn't the world end sooner?"

"Don't be a smart ass." Mike rolls his eyes, but the corner of his mouth jerks up in a smirk that actually does make Jesse feel a little less miserable, makes him forget for a second the hell they're in. 

The spray of blood that hits his face is like a hot shower. It's stupid but his first thought is that the shot is going to attract a herd. His second is that Mike can't be dead, he was talking literally two seconds ago, he can't be dead, it just isn't possible.

"He wasn't infected," Jesse says dumbly, staring at the body. His head pounds from the sun and the smell of the gasoline. "He- he wasn't-"

"It had to be done, Jesse," Walt implores him, the gun lowered at his side now. "Mike was _dangerous_ \- we couldn't trust him."

 _It's starting to look like walkers aren't the only monsters we have to worry about here_ , Mike told him. Jesse had seen the way Mike had looked at the remaining rest of their group, cautious, wary. Sometimes Jesse found himself thinking that if Mr. White ever did find his family, nothing would change, that he may even be disappointed- that he liked all of this a little too much. He always pushed that thought down as deep as he could but it stuck to him anyway, like barbed wire in his brain.

Involuntarily, Jesse imagines either Mr. White or Todd crouching around a corner that night, listening to every conversation they've ever had.

"He didn't know it was coming," Todd says calmly in his direction, like he's explaining to a child why their dog had to be put to sleep. His cheeks are burned slightly, a febrile shade of pink. "He didn't suffer much."

Mike's eyes are still open, looking up at the sky, and when Todd bends down to close them Jesse almost screams. He doesn't want him touching him. Mike should've outlived all of them.

Like Jane should have. With her forearm always smudged with ink, that little crease that formed in between her eyebrows whenever she sketched.

Her blank, yellowed eyes when she lunged at his throat, animalistic and crazy and trying to sink her teeth into him. Jesse thinking _this thing isn't Jane anymore, it's not her_ , still telling himself that when he aimed the gun between her eyes and pulled the trigger. How Jesse had looked over her body afterwards, but hadn't been able to find a single bite.

 _This must mean that virus is capable of passing through the air_ , Mr. White murmured, his hand clasping back of his neck while Jesse sobbed and clutched at his shirt. _Some people could be more susceptible..._

Jesse goes inside and throws up in the employee restroom. He rinses his mouth out with tinny water from the tap. Mike's blood is sticky on his skin and he rubs his face, smearing it red. His mind is static and everything is fucked and Mike's blood is still on him so he loses himself in his go-to fantasy: catching fish on the coast of Alaska, the air brisk and clean against his face. 

He's lying to himself. There would be bodies there too.

When he goes back outside he acts like everything is fine, climbs on into the RV's backseat and considers his options. He eyes the shotgun in Todd's lap, calculating how fast it would take for him to wrench it away. Thinks about which one he should take out first, how much it would mess up the interior. 

But mostly, he just thinks about how he doesn't know if he can handle killing even one more thing.

Walt turns in the front seat, the map in his lap, and smiles at him. Jesse returns it, feeling like it's stapled to his face, his insides turned to ice.

And they drive.


End file.
